Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question and do recognise the great contribution that Western Australia makes to this nation and her passion and support for the strength of the mining sector within Western Australia.

Yesterday, the Minerals Councils of Australia released a Deloitte report on the size of the mining sector in this country. Typically we quote the size of the mining sector in terms of how many people are directly employed at a mine or resource business, but there is, of course, also a business ecosystem surrounding the mining sector—the mining equipment and technology services sector—which does not always get captured in the results. But Deloitte has done some groundbreaking work using RBA methodology on input-output tables to show that in fact 1.1 million Australians owe their employment to the mining sector, and that accounts for about one in 10 jobs in Australia resulting from the mining sector itself. That shows that overall the mining sector accounts for about 15 per cent of GDP in Australia as well. It is a big, big contributor to our nation's wealth and employment, and so many Australians know and understand that their wealth comes from this sector.

It is even more important in some individual regional areas. As I know Senator Reynolds would know, 88 per cent of the economy in the Pilbara, according to this report, is based on the wealth from our resources sector. In my part of the world, the Balonne-Surat area where I live, 63 per cent of our economy relies on the mining sector as well, and in the Hunter region 34 per cent relies on the mining sector. I would imagine if Deloitte had done this work 100 or so years ago the Hunter proportion would have been even higher. The mining sector is often the pioneer in terms of our economic development. It often goes to parts of our country that are not developed, that do not have industry, develops those, and then more diverse businesses come in after that like they have in the Hunter region. Our mining sector remains strong. It is an incredibly strong contributor to our nation. (Time expired)